NNA report from Washington, D.C.

Earlier this month, more than 100 newspaper publishers representing over 32 states made their presence known at the nation's capital. The purpose was to talk to their senators and congressmen about the need for comprehensive postal reform.

Every year the National Newspaper Association conducts its winter meeting in Washington, D.C., taking concerns from the newspaper industry to "The Hill," where they speak to their state legislators, expressing the most immediate areas of focus of the industry and making suggestions how they might help.

The NNA is comprised of community newspapers primarily small dailies and weeklies whose issues are not always mirrored by large metro newspapers that deliver by carrier. Decisions made by the USPS have the most severe repercussions on rural America when the postal service is in such upheaval.

Our focus this year was on two main areas: Six-day mail and a special postage deal for one direct mail company. The USPS has proposed eliminating Saturday mail delivery this year.

Six-day mail

While some may think six-day mail isn't important, there are factors to consider. A recent Pew Research study showed that most Americans rely on newspapers for local news. This means the USPS's woes are now spilling over into civic life, depriving readers, particularly in rural America, of the ability to use their local newspapers to be informed about their communities.

Most of the mail processing plants the USPS has closed were smaller, more efficient plants outside rural areas. The closures slowed mail delivery in rural America. The cuts have caused the employee count to go from more than 800,000 employees to just over 500,000, yet the overly rigorous requirements for prefunding retiree health care into the Retiree Health Benefits Fund have imposed more than $5 billion in extra expense upon the struggling institution every year. More than any other single factor, the aggressive RHB prefunding has dragged the USPS into red ink.

Listening to Post Master General Patrick Donahoe in Washington, D.C., one might think the plan to cut a day of delivery would result in a huge cost savings for the USPS. Looking at his charts and graphs was impressive; however, I was immediately struck by how many variables were not accounted for.

Not everyone is on the Internet, particularly in small rural communities where access isn't readily available. Cutting a delivery day would have a direct effect on dollars pumped into the mail stream; not to mention the additional losses when there's a Monday holiday. Without Saturday delivery, we will have three days with no mail, equating to no communication for a number of citizens as well as businesses that rely on the mail to keep their cash flow moving.

Valassis

Another area we addressed was the unfair advantage given by the USPS to Valassis, Inc. through a negotiated service agreement (NSA).

This NSA amounts to a discount given to a huge major direct mail company one that newspapers cannot come closing to matching. The volume required by the USPS would effectively take revenue from newspapers as Valassis draws some of its volume from newspaper products already in the mail at a higher price.

NNA provided statements from nearly 500 newspapers that their advertising bases could be part of the Valassis NSA target market and, if the NSA succeeded in draining newspaper revenues, news coverage would be diminished.

I met with David Hantman, legislative aide to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who, he stated, supports six-day mail and is taking the NSA very seriously. She has had extensive conversations with the post master general about the unfairness of this potential plan. Donahoe revealed that the NSA has not resulted in the additional volume he had anticipated.

Denise Braemer, legislative aide for Sen. Barbara Boxer, was very informed and echoed the senator's support for NNAs stance regarding six-day mail. She was unsure about her position regarding the NSA, but promised to relay our concerns.

Unfortunately, my meeting with Congressman Jared Huffman didn't take place due to a visit by President Obama who required his presence at a meeting. However, I met with Huffman's chief of staff, Ben Miller, who expressed his concern about the Donahoe's graphs and his numbers not taking loss of potential revenues into consideration.

We in the newspaper industry are under constant assault by the USPS with the lack of service and increase in costs. The hope is that our time spent on "The Hill" has impact and that our voices and concerns were heard.

Editor's note: Publisher Sharon DiMauro is completing her sixth year as a member of the National Newspaper Association Board of Directors. NNA has more than 2,300 members from all 50 states. DiMauro represents Region 11, which includes Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada and Guam. Established in 1885, NNA's mission is to protect, promote and enhance America's community newspapers.